WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is considering the head of a veterans’ medical association as it reviews potential candidates to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A White House official said Dr. Samuel Spagnolo, the president of the National Association of Veterans Affairs Physicians and Dentists, plans to meet with White House staff next week about the VA vacancy. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

President Donald Trump is seeking a nominee to lead the VA after White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrew his nomination for the post.

White House officials this week met with former Florida Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican who once led the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and Ron Nichol, a senior adviser to The Boston Consulting Group, who helped organize the president’s transition.

Acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, a former Pentagon undersecretary for personnel and readiness, is also under consideration for the post.

Trump may meet with potential contenders for VA secretary next week, the official said.

Spagnolo is a George Washington University Medical School professor who has had several academic and administrative appointments to the VA since 1972. According to his biography, Spagnolo served as the medical chest consultant to President Ronald Reagan following the president’s attempted assassination in 1981.

The White House has been searching for the right person to lead the massive federal agency with 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans. Trump chose Jackson for the post in March after firing former Obama administration official David Shulkin following an ethics scandal.

Jackson withdrew last week amid allegations related to his workplace practices, including improperly prescribing medication. Trump has complained that Jackson, who denied the allegations, faced unfair attacks on his character.

In fact, his current job of trying to manage the President the Chaos is so impossible that Trump might not appoint a successor.

I wonder if Kelly thinks back sometimes to being in battle and remembers it as a relatively tranquil period in his life.

According to sources familiar with the situation, White House officials and Trump confidantes are currently discussing the possibility of moving Kelly to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. These people say that the collapse of Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson’s nomination has created an opening for Trump to slide Kelly into the roles. It would give Kelly a soft landing, while also having the benefit of putting a qualified official in charge of the sprawling department. “They’re looking for a place for Kelly to land that won’t eu embarrassing for him,” one Republican briefed on the conversations said…

[T]here has also been talk that Trump wouldn’t replace Kelly at all, instead relying on a coterie of deferential principals similar to the governance structure of the Trump Organization. With Larry Kudlow, John Bolton, and Steven Mnuchin, the president is already de facto operating in that manner. But formalizing such a management structure is still very much a long shot, the sources say.

Kelly’s been a chief of staff in name only (COSINO?) for weeks now. Here’s the opening to an AP story on April 5 describing his diminished power:

When President Donald Trump made a congratulatory phone call to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the White House chief of staff John Kelly wasn’t on the line.

When Trump tapped John Bolton to be his next national security adviser, Kelly wasn’t in the room.

And when Trump spent a Mar-a-Lago weekend stewing over immigration and trade, Kelly wasn’t in sight.

Trump had taken to telling friends that he was “tired of being told no” by Kelly, per the AP, so he simply stopped consulting him on certain matters. When he did consult him, he often ignored his advice. Kelly reportedly urged Trump to dump the EPA chief Scott Pruitt over his ethical headaches and to look past John Bolton for a replacement for H. R. McMaster. In both cases Trump did the opposite: Bolton’s in and Pruitt’s staying put (for the moment). There have been blow-ups too, with Kelly reportedly storming out of Trump’s office the day the last VA chief, David Shulkin, was fired because of the haphazard way in which it was handled. Reportedly it took Jim Mattis and Kirstjen Nielsen to call him down and talk him out of quitting.

Seems like he’s been phoning it in ever since. CNN reported a few days after the Shulkin blow-up that Kelly has cut back his schedule of three meetings a week with senior staffers to one and is “horrified” at Trump’s public attacks on Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein but seemingly resigned to the fact that there’s nothing he can about it. Now, apparently, the POTUS is mulling putting him in charge of the most notoriously sclerotic bureaucracy in the federal government. Why not go easy on him by putting him back on active duty as a Marine and stationing him in the farthest northern reaches of Alaska instead?

Or maybe just let him retire, write his Comey-esque tell-all book, and live out his years in the lap of luxury.

Could John Kelly even get confirmed for VA chief at this point? He was confirmed nor DHS secretary by an overwhelming 88-11 vote but that was because his military pedigree gave him a claim to political neutrality at the time, especially compared to other Trump nominees like Jeff Sessions. That’s long, long gone now. Democrats would ding him for all sorts of political sins. He’d eu grilled over the Rob Porter spousal-abuse lem was invited to stay; his war of words with Dem Rep. Frederica Wilson; his praise for Robert E. Lee; the business about some DACA eligibles being too “lazy” to sign up for the program; his broad support for Trump’s restrictionist immigration policies, and on and on. He’d probably slip through to confirmation like Mike Pompeo did, because red-state Democrats are nervous about blowing up Trump nominees with the midterms so close. But it’d the eu much closer to a 51/49 vote this time than 88/11.

And why the hell would Kelly want to do it? “Duty,” right, but he certainty joined the Corps nearly 50 years ago and has been in public service ever since. I’d say he’s met his duty obligations. He’d get knocked around during his confirmation battle too, and then, if he was lucky and won the vote, he’d have the honor band of going back to work for Trump in a famously thankless job and maybe becoming the next target of his daily p*tposting on Twitter once the VA finds itself snared in a new scandal. There’s not enough money in the world. Let the man go play golf, for cripes sake.

Some additional funded judgeships will likely emerge from the 2018 General Assembly, but politicians have not yet nailed down numbers or the locations where new judges might be added.

The current budget pays for 407 judgeships out of 426 authorized positions in Virginia’s trial courts. Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe – in his final budget proposal – suggested funding one additional judgeship for Loudoun County Circuit Court.

The House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 18 proposed four additional funded judgeships. The Senate Finance Committee proposal added none beyond the one in the governor’s budget.

A Virginia Bar Association lobbyist says the group will keep the pressure on.

“The VBA has long advocated for full funding of the judiciary, and this year is no exception,” said Jeff Palmore of Richmond. “We are working this session to encourage legislators of the importance of a judiciary that is able to meet the needs of its citizens and ensure that access to justice is not unduly delayed by an understaffed court system,” he said.

The House and Senate money committees also split on funding for court programs. The House panel proposed to boost money for drug and mental health court dockets. The Senate committee suggested trimming increases for specialty dockets and adding $525,000 a year for court-appointed lawyer fee waivers.

Court-appointed lawyers seek fee waivers when their work for an indigent criminal defendant exceeds the normal level covered by a pay cap. The Senate’s proposed fee waiver boost was said to be based on the current and projected volume of requests and approvals.

Differences between the House and Senate proposals will be considered in budget conferences as the Assembly session wraps up next month.

The most recent recall involves the Compounding Shop which has agreed to recall all of its sterile drugs after a recent inspection by federal regulators revealed troubling problems with the safety of its drugs. Inspectors say they discovered “exposed rust” on equipment used to manufacture the supposedly sterile products. Beyond that, FDA officials say the report documents instances of “splattered brownish stains” on other surfaces in the area facility, where the medications were mixed.

The presence of the contaminations raised concerns in the FDA that the drugs might the eu dangerous to consumers. Specifically, the FDA said that there were concerns about the safety of some injectable drugs and eye medications created by the Compounding Shop. The FDA’s Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research was quoted, nor saying that if injectable drugs that are meant to be sterile are found to be contaminated, it could result in a life-threatening infection for unsuspecting patients. Though no reports of sick I patients have been connected to the Compounding Shop, the inspectors say a lack of sterility assurance is enough to justify a total recall of all their products.

The recall comes on the heels of a recent announcement by the national board of pharmacies which said the group would support efforts by Congress to allow the FDA to have increased power over compounding pharmacies. Until recently, the specialty companies were governed by state pharmacy boards and not often subjected to the different regulations ts o by the FDA. In the wake of the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak lawmakers have proposed doing away with this more relaxed arrangement and granting the FDA increased powers.

Nor experienced Virginia dangerous drug attorneys, my colleagues and I have helped clients through many cases like this one. Sadly, thousands of people experience the pain of taking a medication prescribed by their doctor only to have it cause serious health problems later on. This happens the lighthouse too often and the side effects can last a lifetime. Attorneys with our Virginia personal injury law firm have helped many victims of dangerous and defective drugs recover damages from companies whose negligence or disregard for consumer safety led to injuries.

If you or a family member has been injured by a defective or dangerous drug, you can begin to learn about your legal rights and options by reading this article. The report, drafted by our experienced Virginia injury attorneys, provides examples of various kinds of dangerous drug lawsuits, common legal theories used in such cases and an explanation of how dangerous drug cases are investigated.

If you’ve been injured due to a dangerous or defective drug, you likely have a lot of questions about how to move forward. Take a look at our firm’s library containing attorneys’ answers to frequently asked questions regarding defective or dangerous drugs.

Here’s a video where our attorneys discuss why medical malpractice claims are often difficult to settle:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-DUiHf6BV8]

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Contact us at: Westlake Legal Group Your Northern Virginia Full Service Law Firm. Call (703) 406-7616 or click here for our website: https://westlakelegal.com/

The latest recall is one in a string of moves by compounding pharmacies to recall products after fears were raised about the sterilization processes at a wide array of facilities. The latest recall includes all the injectables produced under the Balanced Solutions Compounding Pharmacy name, a total of 53 separate products.

The company has said its products were sent to doctor’s offices across the country and that the company will now be recalling all not expired items due to concerns that they may not be sterile. The FDA has announced that during an inspection of the Balanced Solutions plant investigators witnessed poor practices and conditions which could have exposed medications to contamination.

The FDA said the inspection raised concerns about a lack of sterility assurance. A later test of one of Balanced Solutions’ products confirmed the presence of bacteria. Patients who have received drug injections produced by Balanced Solutions are being asked to contact their healthcare providers.

The Virginia Injury Attorney’s Perspective:

The latest problems with Balanced Solutions comes soon after recalls by three other compounding pharmacies across the country. The other compounding pharmacies issued the recalls after FDA inspections raised doubts about sterilization practices. The FDA has turned up the heat on compounding pharmacies across the country in the wake of the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak caused by unsanitary conditions at the New England Compounding Center. That episode left more than 50 people dead and more than 700 seriously injured.

As experienced Virginia dangerous drug attorneys, my colleagues and I have helped clients through many cases like this one. Sadly, thousands of people experience the pain of taking a medication prescribed by their doctor only to have it cause serious health problems later on. This happens far too often and the side effects can last a lifetime.

Potentially Helpful Info:

Attorneys with our Virginia personal injury law firm have helped many victims of dangerous and defective drugs recover damages from companies whose negligence or disregard for consumer safety led to injuries.

If you or a family member has been injured by a defective or dangerous drug, you can begin to learn about your legal rights and options by reading this article. The report, drafted by our experienced Virginia injury attorneys, provides examples of various kinds of dangerous drug lawsuits, common legal theories used in such cases and an explanation of how dangerous drug cases are investigated.

Have Questions? Check Out Our FAQs

If you’ve been injured due to a dangerous or defective drug, you likely have a lot of questions about how to move forward. Take a look at our firm’s library containing attorneys’ answers to frequently asked questions regarding defective or dangerous drugs.

About the Editors: The VA-NC medical malpractice attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis, Appleton & Favaloro include medical and surgical malpractice lawyers licensed in both Virginia and Carolina. Our attorneys have experience handling medical malpractice cases involving hospital and doctors’ mistakes, as well as nursing home abuse and neglect. Check out our case results to see our track record of success in medical malpractice lawsuits, and also be sure to read our free medical malpractice reports Top 10 Tips From a Medical Malpractice Insider and Top 5 Surgical Errors. Attorneys with our firm have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Attorneys with our personal injury law firm have also been named Virginia Super Lawyers since 2010, an honor fewer than 5 percent of practicing attorneys receive.

Contact us at: Westlake Legal Group Your Northern Virginia Full Service Law Firm. Call (703) 406-7616 or click here for our website: https://westlakelegal.com/

The jury that deliberated on the case found that the hospital, St. Charles Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, departed from accepted obstetrical practice in several important ways, ways that the jury found ultimately caused harm to the baby. These alterations from standard operating procedures resulted in a loss of oxygen to the young girl, Shannon Reilly.

Attorneys for the family now say that Shannon is unable to walk, speak, write or swallow without assistance from others. The girl required round-the-clock care for her serious injuries. The jury saw the severity of her injuries as justification for the massive award, one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in New York history.

Despite the good news for the family, it was a very long road to this point. The case actually heated up in 2009 when the family’s attorney convinced them to reject an $8 million settlement offer from the hospital that was attempting to avoid going to trial. The family agreed and ended up losing the case. The loss was seen as so bad that the hospital’s attorneys mocked the failure in the press, laughing at them for turning down $8 million and then getting shut out of court.

Though it was difficult, the family and their attorney persevered and in 2011 the New York Appellate Court reversed the lower court decision, ordering a new trial. The second case ended in a hung jury and required a third trial, which began last month. Despite the years of struggling the fight appears to have been worth it.

The Virginia Injury Attorney’s Perspective:

Most children who have cerebral palsy have had it since birth, often due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. Sometimes this lack of oxygen is because of medical malpractice and delivery mistakes during labor or childbirth. In cases where medical malpractice has been linked to a child’s development of cerebral palsy, common causes include: the failure to properly detect or treat infections in the mother during pregnancy, the failure to properly monitor fetal heart rate before and during labor, the failure to plan for a cesarean section when a baby is too large to safely pass through the birth canal and negligence in using instruments like forceps in a delivery.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of a medical error or complication, you should consult with an experienced Virginia (VA) medical malpractice lawyer who has successfully handled similar med mal cases in the past. Our firm enjoys a reputation of experience and success while representing victims in medical malpractice cases against doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers. We approach each case individually to provide the resources, knowledge and experience to achieve success on behalf of our clients.

Potentially Helpful Info:

If you or a member of your family has been harmed by a Virginia (VA) doctor’s misdiagnosis, mistake or negligence, you can begin to learn about your legal rights and options for seeking compensation by downloading this free report.

Have Questions? Check Out Our Firm’s FAQs.

If you or a loved one has been injured at the hands of a medical professional, chances are you are confused about your options and may not know where to turn for help. To learn more about medical malpractice cases, check out this online library of Virginia (VA) attorneys’ answers to frequently asked questions regarding medical malpractice lawsuits.

Here’s a post discussing the importance of medical records in malpractice lawsuits:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmSHuSdIAXw]

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About the Editors: The VA-NC medical malpractice attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis, Appleton & Favaloro include medical and surgical malpractice lawyers licensed in both Virginia and Carolina. Our attorneys have experience handling medical malpractice cases involving hospital and doctors’ mistakes, as well as nursing home abuse and neglect. Check out our case results to see our track record of success in medical malpractice lawsuits, and also be sure to read our free medical malpractice reports Top 10 Tips From a Medical Malpractice Insider and Top 5 Surgical Errors. Attorneys with our firm have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Attorneys with our personal injury law firm have also been named Virginia Super Lawyers since 2010, an honor fewer than 5 percent of practicing attorneys receive.

Contact us at: Westlake Legal Group Your Northern Virginia Full Service Law Firm. Call (703) 406-7616 or click here for our website: https://westlakelegal.com/

A Nevada medical malpractice case against UnitedHealth and a shoddy medical clinic that infected patients with Hepatitis C, culminated in a massive $500 million punitive damage award. To learn more, read the full story here…

About the Editors: The VA-NC medical malpractice attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis, Appleton & Favaloro include medical and surgical malpractice lawyers licensed in both Virginia and Carolina. Our attorneys have experience handling medical malpractice cases involving hospital and doctors’ mistakes, as well as nursing home abuse and neglect. Check out our case results to see our track record of success in medical malpractice lawsuits, and also be sure to read our free medical malpractice reports Top 10 Tips From a Medical Malpractice Insider and Top 5 Surgical Errors. Attorneys with our firm have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Attorneys with our personal injury law firm have also been named Virginia Super Lawyers since 2010, an honor fewer than 5 percent of practicing attorneys receive.

Contact us at: Westlake Legal Group Your Northern Virginia Full Service Law Firm. Call (703) 406-7616 or click here for our website: https://westlakelegal.com/

At the time of the accident the bus was carrying eight passengers along with the hired driver. Two of the passengers were thrown from the bus as it overturned, one of whom later died. The man who died, Emmanuel Watson, was from Chapel Hill and was serving as a chaperone on the trip.

The bus had been hired to carry a group of students to visit Hampton University during an Open House presentation. Six of the passengers were taken to nearby Southampton Memorial Hospital for treatment of their relatively minor injuries. Another passenger who was thrown from the bus had to be airlifted to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital given the severity of that person’s injuries.

Police have announced that they are charging the 62-year-old driver, Larry Brocks, with reckless driving. The bus was owned and operated by a Washington-based company, Horizon Coach Lines. Police say the investigation into the exact cause of the deadly crash is ongoing.

The Virginia Injury Attorney’s Perspective:

Accidents involving commercial buses are sadly not rare events. In fact, as the popularity of bus services such as Megabus and others have exploded, so have the numbers of serious commercial bus accidents. These accidents frequently turn deadly given the large number of passengers onboard and the general lack of safety features on the buses. Charter buses and other commercial transportation operations rarely if ever have things like airbags or seatbelts, features that are standard on even the most basic passenger cars. Passengers are thus left unprotected and vulnerable in the event of a crash, leading to severe injuries and even death.

Potentially Helpful Information:

Mass transit or bus accidents are very different than a common fender bender. The investigations can be much more time intensive and fighting with a commercial bus operator over damages is often a lengthier process than handling an accident between two individuals. Many of these bus companies, such as the one in the accident above, cross state lines all of which make recovering restitution much harder without the help of an experienced Virginia (VA) bus accident injury lawyer.

Have Questions? Check Out Our Firm’s FAQs:

If you or someone you love has been injured in a Virginia accident you likely don’t know where to turn for advice. The following answers to common frequently asked questions can help provide some basic information about why it’s important to obtain legal counsel after suffering an unexpected accident.

Here’s a Google Map showing the location of the accident:

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About the Editors: The lawyers atShapiro, Lewis, Appleton & Favaloro have decades of experience handling wrongful death claims in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC). Check out our case results to see our track record of success. Our wrongful death law firm has offices in Virginia Beach and Hampton, VA, and in Elizabeth City, NC. Attorneys with our firm have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Attorneys with our personal injury law firm have also been named Virginia Super Lawyers since 2010, an honor fewer than 5 percent of practicing attorneys receive. To learn more about wrongful death law, take a look at this free consumer report written by one of the firm’s experienced wrongful death attorneys.

Contact us at: Westlake Legal Group Your Northern Virginia Full Service Law Firm. Call (703) 406-7616 or click here for our website: https://westlakelegal.com/

Our firm published an article discussing the misguided and irrational arguments calling for capping jury awards at $250,000. Jury awards are not the problem. They do not cause health care costs to increase. Find out why in this article…

About the Editors: The VA-NC medical malpractice attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis, Appleton & Favaloro include medical and surgical malpractice lawyers licensed in both Virginia and Carolina. Our attorneys have experience handling medical malpractice cases involving hospital and doctors’ mistakes, as well as nursing home abuse and neglect. Check out our case results to see our track record of success in medical malpractice lawsuits, and also be sure to read our free medical malpractice reports Top 10 Tips From a Medical Malpractice Insider and Top 5 Surgical Errors. Attorneys with our firm have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Attorneys with our personal injury law firm have also been named Virginia Super Lawyers since 2010, an honor fewer than 5 percent of practicing attorneys receive.

Contact us at: Westlake Legal Group Your Northern Virginia Full Service Law Firm. Call (703) 406-7616 or click here for our website: https://westlakelegal.com/

About the Editors: The VA-NC medical malpractice attorneys at Shapiro, Lewis, Appleton & Favaloro include medical and surgical malpractice lawyers licensed in both Virginia and Carolina. Our attorneys have experience handling medical malpractice cases involving hospital and doctors’ mistakes, as well as nursing home abuse and neglect. Check out our case results to see our track record of success in medical malpractice lawsuits, and also be sure to read our free medical malpractice reports Top 10 Tips From a Medical Malpractice Insider and Top 5 Surgical Errors. Attorneys with our firm have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Attorneys with our personal injury law firm have also been named Virginia Super Lawyers since 2010, an honor fewer than 5 percent of practicing attorneys receive.

Contact us at: Westlake Legal Group Your Northern Virginia Full Service Law Firm. Call (703) 406-7616 or click here for our website: https://westlakelegal.com/

We aim to lead in each practice and area of law we work in. Coming from in-depth understanding of the law and the industry, capitalizing on extensive experience, we provide hands-on advice that speaks the language of our client’s business and/or legal issue.